A 42-year-old chimp called Ichiro temporarily escaped from his pen at Ishikawa zoo in an attempt to cool down.

Ichiro stayed in the shade on the roof top of a building for about two and a half hours before zoo workers managed to coax him down with a banana.

Attempts were looking futile at one point when the chimp took hold of a zoo workers' gun.

A zoo keeper Yasuo Yamamoto said: "It was a simple man-made mistake as one of the doors that should be locked was left unlocked."

It is not difficult to understand why the chimp escaped as temperatures have topped 34 degrees celsius recently.

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